


Anything To Bring You Home

by Leni



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 15:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8897518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Alternate reality. No Dark Curse.Rumpelstiltskin comes to the underworld.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A thousand thanks to still-searching47 for reading through this and spotting the plot holes. *HUGS*

Rumpelstiltskin stepped off the boat, unimpressed so far by his surroundings. He had come prepared to fight hellbeasts in order to fulfill his mission, but it seemed that the worst the Underworld had to offer was the stench from a nearby swamp.

He waved his hand before his nose, appalled.

Then stilled in shock at the sight.

He turned his hand with careful slowness, but the human skin didn't shift to the gray tones it had become centuries ago. Neither did his nails grow into the fearsome talons that had made so many cringe back.

The paler pink of his naked palm mocked him.

It reminded him of the powerless man who had cowered in whichever corner was available. The revolting failure he had been in every aspect.

Rumpelstiltskin refused to fail again.

With a snarl, he called up on his magic.

The swirl of fire that rose from his fingertips in answer made him smile. He chuckled to himself. That the spell that held his ankle together was working should have been his first clue.

His appearance then was a whim of the land.

"A trick," he decided, closing his fist to snuff out the fireball. "How unexpected." He stretched his senses, smirking when he sensed a second power in the vicinity. "I certainly did not think I'd have to deal with my host so soon."

The man who stepped forward was not how Rumpelstiltskin would have envisioned the reigning god of the underworld, if he'd wasted any time in such imaginings. No opulence or flair, except for the knowing eye that recognized fine clothing in fabrics so expensive any king would weep for a chance to wear it.

Hades glanced at him with ill-concealed amusement, then ignored Rumpelstiltskin's responding scowl. "I didn't think to welcome a Dark One at the main door," he said, smile in place. "But here we are."

"No need to show me around," Rumpelstiltskin said.

"On the contrary! There's every need. This is a special occasion, isn't it?" He kept smiling, adding a small shrug as if what he said next was an insignificant detail. "The lot of you usually plop into your assigned space and cause no distractions. But then, all others leave behind the land of the living by the usual methods. None of that pesky pulse or breathing by the time they arrive here." He walked around Rumpelstiltskin, stopping right behind his shoulder before he dropped his voice to a whisper. "Makes a man wonder why the longest-living Dark One would step into the land of the dead on his own volition."

Rumpelstiltskin stared ahead, refusing to bend even as much as to meet the god's eye. "It doesn't concern you," he answered succinctly.

Hades laughed, a cold sound that was in no way made more friendly by the grasp at Rumpelstiltskin's arm or the easy way he leaned in. "Wrong, dear boy. I'm concerned from the moment someone calls up Charon's boat out of schedule. You can't imagine the pile of scrolls that old goat makes me read and seal every time someone interrupts his nap!"

"Sounds like a hassle," Rumpelstiltskin agreed. "Have you considered firing him?"

"Firing--- Hah!" Hades backed away, eyeing Rumpelstiltskin to make sure he was kidding.

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. "I would recommend a more... permanent solution. But-" he gestured at their surroundings. The dry grass. The rotting trees. The silence without the small creatures that should populate a forest. A _living_ forest. "-permanent solutions do seem quite moot here."

Hades chuckled. "We are the land of permanence," he allowed. Then tilted his head, an amused glint in his eye. "But let's leave the subject of fired help, please. I think I know where this is going."

"Doubtful."

"Oh, my good man. There's only one reason someone comes to my realm, and it's never to pay their pal Hades a visit." He caught Rumpelstiltskin's reaction, and shrugged it off in apparent good humor. "I know. I can't understand it either."

"Perhaps it's the decoration."

Hades made a show of looking around, then threw a hand in the air in a show of despair. "For the record, I'm not fond of the gloom and doom ambience either; but it comes with the territory, you know? I can change the theme, but the general mood always remains."

That made sense to Rumpelstiltskin. Hades ruled the underworld, where the dead came to await for final judgment. But the moment something living made its home here, it wouldn't be the underworld anymore.

And Hades would preside over nothing.

"Don't think that'll be a problem for me," Rumpelstiltskin said, facing the god. "I don't plan to stick around that long."

Hades shook his head. "Ah. The plans of man-"

"-are dust," Rumpelstiltskin agreed. "But mine are not."

"Ah. Of course. A gift of prophecy, have you? Not that it has helped you much." He raised his voice over Rumpelstiltskin's noise of protest. "In any case, do take care not to run into my nieces. They don't take lightly a stranger who peeks into their loom and then dares attempt their own pattern. Forcing the threads only makes them needlessly frayed, they tell me. Might even pull out one or two before their time... not that you'd know anything about that?"

Rumpelstiltskin would have gladly burned the work of the Fates down to the last knot. "They could take the advice from a fellow spinner, every once in a while," he sneered.

Hades grinned. "I'll tell them your suggestion. Then I'll sit back to watch how they cut your thread without further ceremony."

Since that was a likely outcome, Rumpelstiltskin retreated behind a polite facade. "Then tell them I've come to amend my mistake," he said smoothly.

"So I was right! Come to guide someone back to life, have you?"

"It wasn't her time."

"And yet, here she is." Hades caught the reaction at his words. "Weren't sure of it, were you?"

"She wasn't one to leave any business unfinished."

"You'd be amazed how many people arrive here unaware of theirs. Then they spend centuries figuring it out." Hades shuddered. "An eternity of failed enlightenment. No wonder this is such a dreadfully boring place."

"My condolences?"

"Oh. I'm sure you have something more interesting to offer."

Rumpelstiltskin caught on at once. "In exchange for?"

"Information. I'd be a fool to let you wander without guidance, when it would take so little and give me so much."

"What can you tell me?"

"The woman you loved in the living world is now a soul under my purview. Better to ask what I can't tell you, Dark One."

Rumpelstiltskin curled his hands into fists, torn between his confidence in his ability to find Belle in this realm, and the unexpected chance to see her again so soon. "Where to find her?"

"That'll cost you some," Hades said with a nod.

"How to take her with me?"

Hades met his eye. "That'll cost you more."

"I don't make blind deals, dearie."

The disrespectful nickname earned a wrinkle of Hades' elegant nose. "Nothing that is not already within your power," he said reassuringly and when Rumpelstiltskin grunted, he added, "and nothing that will require you to stay indefinitely."

"Or even for very long?"

"Or even for a day."

"I could set off on my own. Eventually I'd find her."

Hades nodded, acknowledging that. Unlike the few humans who had made the trek to the underworld, the Dark One wouldn't be pressed by the need for food or drink. "I could make you search for years. You're the intruder, Dark One. It's not wise to challenge the ruler of the land where you travel."

"Name it."

"Let's start with something simple. An answer. A truthful answer, and I'll send you to the woman."

Rumpelstiltskin peered at him with distrust, but the wording was so simple it couldn't hide any traps. "All right."

"Is it still True Love?"

That made Rumpelstiltskin blink. "How...?"

"I told you. My nieces have been in a tizzy over you. They've followed the lives of every Dark One since that foolish girl became the first. I understand you enliven every situation you touch? Makes for easy entertainment, I guess," he said, chuckling. "But then for you to go and almost get rid of the curse... and not even trying! I got an earful about the evil of men and how we don't respect quality work anymore." Hades shook his head in the way of a man plagued by his female relatives. "But that was then, and much has happened since that day. So... is it?"

Rumpelstiltskin had promised an answer, but not that he must voice it. He gave a nod, his throat suddenly too tight.

The first sincere smile in the meeting appeared on Hades's face at that. "Good to know," he said simply. Then he reached to untie a small pouch that hung from his belt. Tossed it at Rumpelstiltskin, who caught it easily, feeling it and glancing at Hades when he decided it was some kind of polished rock inside. "A marker of your status as my guest," Hades explained. "Harm nobody, and nobody should harm you back."

Rumpelstiltskin chuckled at the idea of the dead being able to hurt him.

Hades smiled patiently - "Don't say I didn't warn you." - and lifted a hand.

It was strange to be transported away by someone else's power. But Rumpelstiltskin gladly bore with the discomfort if it meant a quick trip to wherever Belle's soul had picked.

He almost decided that Hades had set the price too cheaply.

He should have known better.

 

***

 

"You!"

Rumpelstiltskin backed away in shock. "You!" he growled, a familiar wave of anger engulfing him at the sight of the woman who had once been his wife. He fisted his hand around Hades's talisman, but didn't let go. If someone in the Underworld would want revenge against him, it would be Milah.

Out of all the souls he might be responsible for sending to the underworld, this woman was the only one who believed he could be hurt, damn the gods!

Or in this case, one specific, slimy, cheating bastard god.

Meanwhile Milah stared at him.

Perhaps if Rumpelstiltskin had been ready to see her again, he would have made sure to approach in a more dignified manner. He had met several women like Milah in his time as the Dark One, women who wanted everything the world offered and were willing to give anything in exchange.

Even their children.

He could have shown her the coldness she deserved, instead of standing in front of her while he gaped like a fool.

And like it had always been, Milah answered his hesitation with a laugh. "Finally bit it, did you, Rumple?"

He drew himself straight. "Not at all, dearie. Just visiting."

"Here to torment me with your presence?" Milah scoffed. "You give yourself too much importance."

"I believe I'm being tormented with you," Rumpelstiltskin parried back.

One eyebrow rose in surprise. Had he ever talked to her like that, while they'd been living together? No. Of course not. And the one time they'd seen each other, he had looked like a different man.

Milah shook her head. "I have work to do, Rumple," she told him. "Just go away."

For the first time, Rumpelstiltskin looked around the room where Hades had sent him. A half dozen beds were crammed in one end, while another half dozen faced them from the other side. Small beds. Fit for children only. Rumpelstiltskin looked down, at the basket of laundry that stood at Milah's feet. On the table at her side already lay a pile of carefully folded shirts and another of pants.

All in children's sizes as well.

"You run an orphanage?" He couldn't help it, he had to laugh at the irony. "Oh. This is too rich!"

"Someone has to do it," Milah told him, head held high.

His cheating wife. The picture of wounded dignity now.

Rumpelstiltskin felt his expression thin into a razor-sharp smile. He wanted nothing more than to stab that picture to shreds. "Of course, dearie. How can I doubt it? I remember your motherly warmth, how you made our son your priority in life. What child wouldn't be blessed by your care, hm?" He dropped his voice, just in case one of the little souls were within hearing range. "It's not enough that lost children must spend eternity in this broken world, they also get to have you as a caretaker."

"I'm good at my job."

"So it was only your own child you decided to abandon?"

Milah glared at him.

Rumpelstiltskin glared back. Then shook his head. "Oh, forget it," he grumbled, turning on his heel. "I already wasted too much time arguing with you."

"Sure," he heard her say, her tone too sweet. "Do what you do best, Rumple. Run away!"

He grit his teeth together. The temptation to turn around and make her regret her words was strong, but he had no time to lose. If Hades was playing tricks, it meant that when he'd accepted that his stay in the underworld wouldn't last over a day, he had also committed himself to that deadline.

He had come to rescue one woman, not to fight with another.

"Good bye, Milah."

"Wait!"

The biggest surprise of the day had to be her hand wrapping around his shirt.

"What about Bae? Did you find him? Is he well?"

The first question alone had him pulling away. By the second he wanted to both shove Milah away and ask her to say their son's name again. It had been so long since he'd heard it on anyone else's tongue. "No," he admitted, lowering his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Oh."

Rumpelstiltskin wanted to kick down on the floor and bring the whole building down around the two of them. What right did she have to sound so hurt? "Perhaps if I'd had a way to follow him," he growled. "But instead of a magic bean I got a couple of cheating pirates. Wonder how that happened?"

Milah snarled back. "Oh, that was centuries ago, Rumpelstiltskin. If you haven't found him yet, what makes you think you wouldn't have fumbled with that portal too?"

Once a useless husband, always a useless husband - wasn't it?

But he'd find a way. He would show her!

"Stay with your children, Milah," he said as he stalked away. "Leave Bae to me. Again."

"I never should have left!" she screamed.

Rumpelstiltskin laughed, almost doubling over with mirth. Because she was saying the truth. He knew the voice of the hopeless. He'd heard all the nuances of regret, and Milah's words danced to the most pitiful tune.

But he wasn't a fool.

"You always knew that, my dear," he told her, "or you wouldn't have taken the bother to have your lover lie to me."

"I didn't know Killian would-"

"Oh, spare me. Like I care?"

He turned around, meeting the eyes of the woman who had once shared his life. The resentment of years stuck in such a mismatched situation stood between them, and not even death or the centuries would make that go away. To that, he could add the knowledge that the man he had been would have gladly kept their marriage as it had been, content to allow his wife to mock and despair of him if only to avoid the uncertainty of change.

The man he was now applauded her for leaving behind that wreck of a husband. And hated her for not taking Baelfire along.

The man he wanted to become didn't shy away from the truth. Not even when it weighed heavy on his own conscience.

"Let's not lie to ourselves, Milah," he told her in a softer voice. "You would still climb onto the Jolly Roger and leave Bae with me, and I would still lose him afterwards. You just failed him first."

She opened her mouth to protest, but in the end only shook her head. "I just want to know he is happy," Milah said. "I don't care where. I don't care when. I don't care if he hates me, or if he doesn't even remember my name! All I want..."

Rumpelstiltskin nodded when words failed her. "I know."

"If you...?"

Oh, he hated her. On that deck, so many years ago, he would have killed her a hundred times. For leaving them. For her lies. For driving rusty old knives back into barely healed wounds with the accuracy of the one who'd inflicted them in the first place.

The man he wanted to become would try to forgive her.

Rumpelstiltskin was a long ways from that yet. But the wish to know about Baelfire's fate.... That, he understood. "I'll let you know," he promised. "Somehow."

Milah nodded. Then she took a deep breath. "You should go to your castle, Rumple."

"I'm not leaving yet. I have... something to do."

"I meant your castle here. Or that's what people say it is?" She shrugged, obviously bemused by the idea of her husband as the owner of anything bigger than their humble home. "It appeared a few leagues to the north only a few months ago."

Rumpelstiltskin looked up. The timing... It couldn't be coincidence. "You're sure?"

"One can't miss a building that size, Rumple." Milah chuckled. "And where else would one see your ancient spinning wheel next to baskets of gold?"

It took a moment between breathing in relief at having a specific destination and realizing what Milah had just implied. "You've been there."

"I have."

He licked his lips, his throat suddenly dry. He braced himself. Not even he knew what would cause the most impact, a positive answer or a negative one. "Is it empty?"

Milah shook her head.

His eyes closed in relief.

"She said you'd changed," he heard Milah say. "I called her a fool."

Rumpelstiltskin chuckled, but didn't admit that he'd done likewise - several times. "If Belle is a fool, then we're rambling idiots," he told her.

Milah raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who is alive yet walking in the underworld."

"And you ran away on a pirate ship," he retorted with enough venom to make her scowl, and then raised a hand to halt her protest. "I'm just telling you not to cast stones, dearie. I know the cracks to your glass house too well."

To his surprise, that got a smile out of her.

He thought it best to leave on that note.

He had a castle to visit. A maid in distress to save.

The Dark One, on a mission worthy of the holiest of knights... Rumpelstiltskin scowled. If this tale ever reached the world of the living, he'd never recover from such blow to his reputation.

 

***

 

Not even in his worst mood had he laid out such an unwelcoming path that led to the Dark Castle. Rumpelstiltskin scowled at the thick row of thorny bushes that lined the road on both sides. Dead dry things, and sharper for it. Had he needed to walk all the way to the gates, he wouldn't have escaped without at least some scratches.

The way down would be just as hazardous. Had Belle been forced to shut herself in here too?

Rumpelstiltskin hated that thought.

With a wave of his hand, he cleared the road, leaving the dust and rocks as the only company along a thin road that stretched a lot longer than it had in real life. He nodded in satisfaction, unconcerned by the distance.

Within another thought, he was standing before the great gates at the wall that surrounded his castle. He frowned, as he had meant to travel directly to his main hall, but the next attempt got him no closer.

Puzzled, he laid a hand against the metal, searching for an explanation.

He found it threaded within the same spell he had placed on the gates so many decades ago. The wards still obeyed the will of their master. But in this world, it wasn't Rumpelstiltskin they recognized.

"That girl," he murmured, shaking his head.

Belle had stolen his free hours. Then she'd taken his heart.

Now it was this copy of his castle that belonged to her.

This time he pressed forward, not quite breaking the wards but slipping between the web of power that mirrored the one he'd laid in another world. He knew their strength, the direction they took. A bit of effort, and he cackled back into existence before another set of gates.

Well, he thought with a shrug. Not the entrance he'd planned, but at least now Belle would hear him knock.

He waited for a minute.

Then another.

Impatient, Rumpelstiltskin put a hand against the door, feeling for a weakness he didn't expect to find. He had perfected the craft of warding on his own doors, and he had kept working at the spells through the years, adding new false ends and hidden traps to meet the fool who attempted to break in.

Only one person had managed to slip in.

For a long time, he had been more miffed about Hood finding the crack in his defenses - the small detail that he hadn't thought to shield the windows _on the top floor_ from physical interference - than because of the missing fairy wand. The oversight had been remedied immediately after their trek to Sherwood Forest, so even scaling the walls would do him no good.

Given a few hours to burst through this last set of protective spells, he would have accomplished it. The magic might not obey him, but Rumpelstiltskin still was acquainted with every bend and knot of it.

He was considering how much force to apply, when he finally heard steps come closer.

Just like they had done for him, in the Enchanted Forest, the gates also opened wide at Belle's approach. Inside, little was changed. The walls were darker, streaked with traces of mold, and the furniture within his sight was a poor reflection of the fine pieces he had collected during his life.

Most of it was broken, mirrors cracked and wood gouged and bent.

He was incensed at the thought of Belle living among these ruins. Her escape from Regina's prison should have brought an end to her time in such poor comfort, but a second look made Rumpelstiltskin realize that Belle had already imposed some order among the wreckage. The worst pieces had been put to a side, while those that could be salvaged were in the process of being lovingly patched, one laborious hand putting together what she could.

No wonder he loved Belle so much. Even here she had made something of a home.

And there she was, as lovely as Rumpelstiltskin remembered her.

"Belle," he whispered, awestruck.

He had been determined to find her, but now he could admit there had been so many obstacles that seeing her again should have been the work of decades. He had been willing to wait, just as he still waited to reunite with Baelfire, but to find her so soon...

He smiled. Drew himself straighter. "Hello, dear."

"Who---?"

The aborted sentence hung in the air as Belle caught sight of him. Her brow furrowed in confusion for a moment, and Rumpelstiltskin remembered his changed appearance. But then Belle's hand flew to her mouth, not quite managing to stifle a gasp.

When Rumpelstiltskin opened his arms, she ran straight at him.

"Rumple!"

Rumpelstiltskin knew tears sprung to his eyes as soon as he touched her. After so many months without her, just this moment felt perfect. "Belle," he murmured, pulling her closer, hands running over her back as if to check she was tangible from every angle, then grabbing onto her shoulders and leaning back to watch her. "Oh, sweetheart."

She was crying too, but her lips kept trying to pull into a smile. "What happened?" she whispered, palming down his chest.

Too late he realized she had been looking for a wound. A cause of death.

Instead she reared back when she felt his heartbeat. Her eyes flew to his face, shocked at first and then widening in horrified comprehension. "What have you done, Rumple?"

Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth to answer, but a wave of magic made him shudder.

When he looked at Belle again, it was to find her staring ahead, her cheeks pale and her lips frozen on the first syllable of his name.

They weren't alone.

 

***

 

"What does this mean?" Rumpelstiltskin roared, following the trail of magic to the god now calmly regarding them from the other side of the receiving hall. "You cheating bastard!"

Hades laughed, as unconcerned by the Dark One's anger as Rumpelstiltskin would have been at a soldier's sword. "Would that it be so," he exclaimed, walking closer with leisurely steps. "With no charge of parricide I could have dodged my brother's ruling. But no luck, and so I cannot return home. Instead-" He gestured between Rumpelstiltskin and Belle. "-I need to get _creative_."

Rumpelstiltskin placed himself between Belle and the lord of the underworld, too aware that the wards that had delayed him posed no problem for Hades. As long as they stayed in this world, the annoying god would have the upper hand. The only advantage they had was that Hades was looking for a deal.

"Why play games?" he asked. "Why not tell me what you need?"

Hades shrugged. "I was bored? You're the first living person to step here in centuries. The only one who hasn't slipped into their eternal job. I got curious."

"So you sent me to Milah?"

"A misunderstanding. My apologies. But we did talk about a woman you had loved in the world above... and she is that, isn't she?"

Rumpelstiltskin scowled, but didn't protest further. If Hades wanted to slip through loopholes and technicalities, Rumpelstiltskin would be glad to meet him midway. "You said there was a way to take Belle with me," he reminded the other man. "Was that a misunderstanding too?"

"Of course not." Hades smiled. "There's the ambrosia. If you got some---"

"A _useful_ way, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin cut in. In collecting a sample of blood from one who'd come back from the underworld, he had met Orpheus's descendants. According to the tale that had been passed down their family, their great-grandfather had traveled into the underworld and stolen the ambrosia within hours of his bride's death, aided by his own celestial patron. The ambrosia had reanimated the girl's body, but it would have been useless if he'd waited even a few more days. "It has been months for Belle."

Hades made an obvious effort to hide his disappointment. Obviously he would have enjoyed to watch the Dark One run around with nothing to show for it in the end. "Just as well," he said. "That leaves us with divine intervention."

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow. "The god of the dead can bring someone to life?"

"Not at the moment," Hades acknowledged. "Once I'm free to wander the world above without being compelled to return here, I'll recover all my powers over the living as well. It will be the work of an instant to give you the girl back. But for that to happen, first I must deal with the curse my dear brother placed on me. I understand you're something of an authority in the subject?"

"Curses." Rumpelstiltskin growled the word. Three centuries wasted, and in the end Regina had disappointed him. "I know something of them, yes."

"How to make them?"

"The darkest of them."

"How to break them too?"

"There's always a way," Rumpelstiltskin said.

"Oh yes," Hades agreed. "And I've tried them all. Well, except one. Though I did come close."

"Ah." Rumpelstiltskin didn't need to be told what it was. It didn't matter the world or the caster, across all realities True Love always triumphed. "It is an exchange you suggest. Belle for..." He frowned, truly at a loss. "Is there someone already?"

"There might be."

"Oh? Not someone in this realm, I gather, since you need something to pull you _out_."

"The lady in question is alive, yes."

"One wonders what kind of woman consorts with the god of the dead. Or perhaps it's an innocent who doesn't know better? Let me guess! Some young thing you met on a field, that's it. Ready to be plucked away and brought to her new home."

Hades lifted an eyebrow. "To take her away from home and family? Not everyone can succeed with your courting style, Dark One."

Rumpelstiltskin glared.

“But as it happens, this young lady has already made your acquaintanceship. Quick of mind, pretty of body. An astounding talent for magic,” he continued with a wistful smile, “which is most conveniently married to an insatiable thirst for power.”

Rumpelstiltskin had almost snapped that Regina’s days were counted, but he’d bitten his tongue. He had sworn to get even with her, make her pay for what she’d done to Belle; but if that was what Hades required for his help, he would gladly shove his former pupil into the underworld instead.

The last reason for Hades' interest gave him pause, though.

Regina liked power, yes. But she had always grasped and hoarded what was given to her, not gone out of her way to gather more.

There were, however, two other women he knew who would set the world ablaze for one more fistful of power. Nothing was allowed to stand in their way, if it meant they could put even more distance from the embarrassingly humble beginnings they’d had.

One had turned her exile to Wonderland into a rule over a significant portion of the realm, and had returned there after faking her death had only soured her relationship with Regina even further. Power had always made Cora attractive. Rumpelstiltskin knew personally the effect she had on a man. Desire with an unhealthy side of obsession, yes. The kind of ardor that would make even the Dark One lose his head and bend a deal to her favor.

But Hades was sporting a fond smile at the thought of his beloved, and Cora did not inspire fondness.

That left… “Zelena?”

Hades grinned.

Rumpelstiltskin pondered over that. Unlike her half-sister, Zelena had nothing to fear from him. The realm-hopping slippers had never been part of their deal. Much as he burned at the thought of the girl keeping them out of his reach out of spite, Zelena hadn’t broken her word.

He had no ill-will against her.

“You can’t force true love,” he reminded the other man.

The response was a roll of gray eyes. “I just said I don’t need you to kidnap her, Dark One. I want advice. The last time I saw her… well. You might say she and I parted on difficult terms.”

No wonder Hades's first price had been a confirmation on whether True Love lasted through time spent apart.

Rumpelstiltskin stomped on the smidgen of sympathy that decided to arise at the familiar situation. He was not Hades, and Belle was definitely nothing like Zelena. Belle had forgiven him before he'd even apologized to her, and the months they'd had together before Regina had struck had been the happiest he could remember. Zelena would happily make a powerful god beg on his knees if she believed she had been wronged. That she did have in common with Regina; the two of them had inherited their mother's capacity to hold onto a grudge.

"Zelena is stubborn," he warned. “It would help if I knew what happened."

Hades made a vague gesture. "She wants to travel back in time," he said, so casually that Rumpelstiltskin understood the concept wasn't an impossible task among the gods. "When I tried to help her, Zelena took my interference as an attempt to hijack her spell. Wouldn't listen when I said our love was more important anyway."

Rumpelstiltskin smirked, a little impressed. Not only was his former student attempting what, if not impossible after all, would demand power as it had rarely been seen in any world; but she had also sent Hades - a man who'd offered to give her the love she had craved for years - away when she couldn't trust him. If Regina had half that strength of character, if she hadn’t allowed herself to be swayed by her father’s pleas to spare his sorry life, she would already be basking in her triumph in the World without Magic... and he would be on his way to find Baelfire instead of having to start from scratch.

Belle would be alive, and perhaps she would have escaped Regina's prison in that other world. They might have come together, and he would not have known the heartbreak of losing her.

But that was a world that would never happen. In the real world, he was to play matchmaker for the god of the underworld.

"Did you think to ask why she's trying to change the past?"

Hades shrugged. "She did mention revenge. I couldn't see fault with it; younger siblings are a pest."

Of course it was the contempt against their own blood that drew those two together. Another proof that True Love wasn't about right or wrong, but about the compatibility between two people.

That was something he and Belle had needed to come to terms with, in allowing themselves to love each other.

Luckily for the dismissed lover, Rumpelstiltskin knew the inner workings of Cora's daughters better than they knew themselves. "Much as I'd love to see Regina taken down by her sister, what would restore you to Zelena's good graces is to present her with what she truly is missing."

"I'm listening."

"Why, her mother's love of course."

Hades narrowed his eyes. "The woman who abandoned her?"

Rumpelstiltskin couldn't explain it either. His own child had pulled away from him the moment he sensed the darkness growing in him - without Rumpelstiltskin ever thinking to hurt his boy. But Cora retained the love of her daughters, twisted as it were, even after she had left the oldest to the mercy of strangers and broken the heart of her youngest. "The heart has reasons that reason doesn't understand," he quoted an old proverb. "How you make her happy doesn't have to make sense, dearie. It just has to be something she will appreciate."

That was something else he had learned during his time with Belle back at his side.

Hades looked hesitant.

"I will help you," Rumpelstiltskin told him confidently.

A quick calculation had showed him the easiest path. Or at least it seemed easy to one who was long used to the building of long-reaching schemes in order to impose his will on the workings of fate. There might a loom where three sisters spun the order of the world, but Rumpelstiltskin knew that their pattern was only one of the many options. The ladies would have to rework some sections to accommodate him, that was all.

Belle needed the auspices of a god to be revived. Hades needed True Love's kiss - and for some reason had chosen Zelena for it. Zelena would pick whoever granted her dearest wish, to be first in Cora's life.

And that, Rumpelstiltskin thought, was a simple task once one understood that Cora loved power above all.

Given a choice between the daughter who had been bested by Snow White and exiled for the rest of her life, and the other who had won the regard of a god, Cora would find a maternal bone or two to welcome her long-lost child.

"You can't force love," Hades reminded him.

Rumpelstiltskin smiled. Hadn't he just pointed that out? "Never crossed my mind."

"It has to be real," Hades pressed. "Zelena deserves it."

Having met the girl, Rumpelstiltskin doubted that. But why contradict a man in love? He knew from experience that love could be blind and deaf, and though weaker until confronted with reality, it wasn't any less real.

For Cora to feel love, first there would have to be a heart beating in her chest. That would take a little more work, but planning was something Rumpelstiltskin could do between heartbeats. "It will be real," he promised.

Recovering Cora's heart had never been a priority, but he'd made a point of knowing where it was hidden. There just happened to be a thief who owed him the life of a wife and a child. If Hood had managed to slip through the defenses around the Dark Castle, Rumpelstiltskin trusted he would succeed in Wonderland as well.

"I guarantee a way to win Zelena's heart, and from there you can let True Love break your curse. In exchange, once your full powers are reinstated, you'll bring Belle back to life," Rumpelstiltskin summarized, letting his hand drift to graze against her skin. He only had to pull this off, and he would be able to live with his own love. "Do we have a deal?"

Hades grinned, obviously pleased with the terms.

Rumpelstiltskin added as a mental note that the gods truly thought little of the boundary between life and death. What any with mortal magic wouldn't dream to accomplish without sacrifice - and even the Dark One's origins were as mortal as the lowest peasant - the gods gave at a whim.

Did they take away their favors as glibly as well?

For good measure, he called up a contract, his signature already on it.

Hades looked amused. "Ah yes. Of course. You _are_ still fond of these, aren't you?"

Rumpelstiltskin wondered at the remark, but it was inconsequential enough to ignore. It wouldn't pay to get distracted now. "Always pays to be careful, dearie. A signature, to make sure we both know our mutual obligations."

"Indeed." Hades waved a hand, blue fire coming to spell his name on the scroll. He met Rumpelstiltskin's eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. "After all, a signed contract is inviolable."

That was the voice of someone with an ace under their sleeve.

Rumpelstiltskin decided to let it pass. Right now, Belle's life was on the balance and no god's machination could be more important.

"It's a deal!"

Hades nodded, vanishing away.

Belle turned to him, worry on her features but giving no sign that she had heard his conversation with the lord of the underworld. No matter. There was time to fill her in before he left to arrange for Hood's departure into Wonderland.

"Rumple?"

He remembered her question from before Hades had interrupted them.

_What have you done?_

"It's all right, sweetheart," he reassured her, closing his arms around her. "I found a way to take you home."

 

The End  
18/12/16

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love. *points to comment box*


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